Nebraska wins $2.3 million in USDA 9006/ REAP loans and grants for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects (AP). $35 million was awarded nationally. The 170 successful Nebraska projects included wind turbines, geothermal systems, biomass corn stoves, and the conversion of diesel irrigators to electric.
The Kansas Energy Office has now hired someone to help Kansans fill out REAP and CREBs applications. Contact them for more information.
Good farm economy still at risk (Bloomberg). Originally found this article on Climateer. Quotable:
U.S. agricultural income is the highest in three decades after corn and soybeans rose to records. The risk for farmers is that costs are rising even faster, increasing concern of a profit squeeze.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture report tomorrow may show costs are accelerating as revenue growth slows, similar to a pattern that led to a 1980s farm crisis that was the worst since the Great Depression, said Gary Schnitkey, a University of Illinois farm economist. Corn, wheat and soybean prices are all at least 18 percent below their peaks.
Fertilizer costs doubled from a year ago, while fuel increased 62 percent, USDA data show. Expenses probably will surpass the $279.2 billion that the USDA estimated in February, eroding net income the government pegged at a record $92.3 billion for 2008, farmers and economists said.
“Income peaked this year,” said Kurt Line, who owns or manages more than 6,800 acres of farmland near Momence, Illinois. “We should see a significant drop in 2009. For the number of dollars we will be risking the next two years, profit margins are not going to be robust.”
New study identifies cause of death for bats around wind turbines – air pressure drops (NAWindpower). Quotable:
The study shows that 90% of the bats examined after death showed signs of internal hemorrhaging consistent with barotraumas, while only about half showed evidence of direct contact with the blades.
The study was initiated by power generation company TransAlta Corp. after its wind farm operators noticed bat carcasses below wind turbines and approached Barclay, an internationally recognized bat expert, for advice.
“It was important for us to determine as much as we could about this issue,” says Jason Edworthy, director for stakeholder relations for TransAlta. “Ultimately, it’s a situation we’re working hard to alleviate. Ongoing research with the university is seeing some real results in terms of mitigation of collisions.”
TX regulators slap rate restrictions on proposed coal-fired plant in Arkansas (Reuters). (The project also appears to be having problems with an air permit.) Quotable:
In its final order, signed this week, the Texas Public Utility Commission said Texas customers of AEP’s Southwestern Electric Power Co (SWEPCO) unit will pay no more their share of the $1.52 billion price tag to build the 600-megawatt John W Turk Jr. coal-fired plant in Fulton, Arkansas.
“This cap on the capital cost of the Turk plant limits the financial risk to Texas ratepayers,” the order said.
Texas regulators, who voted last month to approve the plant, also limited the amount of future carbon-mitigation costs than can be passed to Texas ratepayers at $28 per ton through 2030.
Estimated costs for carbon mitigation ranged from $13 to $70 per ton, with the average between $30-$45, the order said.
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
Walk the Talk – saga of the reusable coffee cups
August 29, 2008
I made a really rash promise a while back. No more disposable coffee cups. I now have to bring my own re-usable cup – or, no coffee. (Eek.)
Sounded easy enough.
Three – wait, four – brand new cups later, I have to confess… it’s not.
This whole kick started where change usually starts – when two disconnecting sections of your brain all of a sudden link up, sizzle, and you go, OH. My disconnect was that while I could recycle the cardboard cup, I was somehow ignoring the fact that those plastic lids cannot be recycled. Once in a dump, they pretty much last forever. I have probably used thousands of them in my lifetime.
Eternal life is a big concept and people argue about it all the time, but I am pretty sure no one thinks it should be symbolized by ten billion coffee cup lids. I know I don’t. That was my reconnect moment.
Then I made my rash pledge.
Of course, it’s not exactly smart or economical to buy coffee, anyway. Ideally I should be making it at home and taking it to work with me in a thermos. Sometimes this happens. Mostly it doesn’t, so I have been trying to keep a re-usable mug with me at all times. At work, in the car, in my computer bag, in my purse, etc.
Well, 95% of the time, I actually have one. At least it started out as one. Then I slipped up and lo, it was two. Next my husband decided to get with the program, and he took one of my cups. I couldn’t find my original one and had to buy another. Upon which the original one immediately turned up, oh well.
Looking back, I realize that at first my husband thought this new kick of mine was kind of cute. However, looking at three re-usable coffee cups sitting on the kitchen counter yesterday, he started to do a little math.
Every time I forget a cup, it adds up. They aren’t cheap.
This is probably why he panicked with me on the phone yesterday. We were talking, I was running late and pulling into a Starbucks (because as much as I like the KCC meetings they go a lot easier with caffeine), and I said, “Honey! Oh dear! I forgot my cup!”
He said, “NOOOOOOOO. No!”
I said, “What?”
Since I didn’t marry a dummy, he backed right off the direct order and tried trickery, I mean persuasion. He knows what arguments usually work with me, too.
“Think about all the resources it takes to make those reusable cups!” he pointed out. “Don’t buy another one! Come on. Don’t do it.”
I totally got his point. Moderation is a good thing. Still! Since I was running late, I decided to cut off the next five minutes of back and forth. Instead, I went straight to the kill shot – my underlying emotional reason. I’ll feel guilty about the lack of moderation thing later.
Sadly I said, “Oh but baby… I promised.”
(Let’s simply translate his next statement as “Argh!”)
I then rushed in and bought another blessed cup. The fourth cup. Geez.
Why, again, do I drink coffee?
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
